


embers will glow even when the days tire

by hirokiyuu



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Commission fic, Florist AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 14:45:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9186857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirokiyuu/pseuds/hirokiyuu
Summary: He comes back in the wintertime, dirt still under his nails.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MountainMew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MountainMew/gifts).



> another one for tori, please enjoy the copious amounts of sap!
> 
> a continuation/adaption of a previous 3sen from the ficlet collection, featuring florist shuu + customer nazuna.
> 
> title from "welcome to you and me" by hidetake takayama.

 Before meeting Shuu, Nazuna’s windowsill was empty. It’d sat bathed in light and dusty, and Nazuna never paid it any mind even as he’d leaned on it to crack open his window.

Now, though, there’s greenery all over it. “ _Here,_ ” Shuu -- Itsuki, then -- had said, when Nazuna had come to the flower shop for the second time. “ _This is easy to take care of, if you’ve never taken care of any plants before_.”

And again Nazuna had been captivated by Shuu’s expression, looking down at the tiny plant. It’s the same look that Shuu had had when he’d wrapped that bouquet Nazuna bought for Izumi’s show, the one that smoothed out the harsh lines of his face, that turned the corners of his mouth up and transformed him into one of the loveliest people Nazuna had ever seen. It’s the look that had brought Nazuna back to the shop in the first place.

“ _Thank you_ ,” Nazuna had said, and cradled it carefully in his hands. He’d listened as Itsuki had explained how to take care of it, writing down the instructions precisely, and when he’d finished he’d asked, a little hesitantly, “ _If I have any more questions, um, do you mind if I come back?_ ”

The flowers all around them were pretty but the color that spread over Shuu’s cheeks right then had overshadowed them all. “ _I -- That’s. That’s fine_ ,” he’d said, looking back down at the plant in Nazuna’s hands, and Nazuna couldn’t help the smile that had spread over his face.

That had been the first but not the last. It still sits on his sill, more towards the front because it needs the least sunlight of everything Nazuna owns. Still, Nazuna is careful watering it as he is with all the rest, fingers testing soil gently, and every time he does he remembers Shuu’s delicate touch as he’d demonstrated that same motion.

Every plant is like that, wrapped up in some old memory. His fingers trail over leaves and spines and needles, and he remembers light conversation, the feeling of the counter digging into his side as he leaned across it to talk to Shuu, the way Shuu had stuttered out a request for Nazuna’s phone number one afternoon as the sun cast three bright stripes on his hair through the blinds.

Even afterwards he’d kept them, tending to them carefully, adjusting their arrangement on days when the sun didn’t shine enough and changing out pots when they were outgrown. Even when their memories had become faded with time he’d watched over them day by day, and as he’d let them grown he’d hoped that one day Shuu would be able to see how well they’d become.

It’s to the windowsill that Shuu gravitates after Nazuna lets him in, as Nazuna rummages through his cabinets for the old jars he’d started keeping when he and Shuu had been dating. He fills the bottom with water and then places the bouquet in gently. Half of them he recognizes: white carnations, bellflower, primrose. Others he doesn’t -- small bunches of purple for accents, white blooms with thinly spaced petals interspersed here and there. He puts the bouquet on the counter, and turns to put on tea.

As the water boils he makes his way over to where Shuu is standing. Shuu’s got a leaf between his fingers, and the tension that Nazuna’d seen in his shoulders when he’d knocked is gone. Still, as Nazuna nears, they inch back upwards.

It’s quiet. Nazuna stands next to Shuu, and breathes.

“...They’re doing well,” Shuu says, finally. Nazuna glances up but Shuu’s eyes are still pointed downwards.

Nazuna smiles, looking down as well. “I’ve been doing my best to take care of them.” He reaches forward, touches the orchid carefully. In the afternoon sunlight it almost seems like it’s glowing.

“Nazuna --” Shuu starts, but before he can say anything whistling cuts between them.

Nazuna turns before Shuu can speak again. “You can go sit down,” he says, stepping back into the tiny kitchen. “I’ll be out in a second.”

He pours the tea slowly, using familiar motions to steady himself. By the time he has two cups his hands aren’t trembling, and carefully he makes his way to his small sitting area.

Shuu’s sitting on the edge of the couch, hands wringing together, but when he sees Nazuna he starts to stand. “Do you…” he trails off, reaching out even as Nazuna places the cup in his hands. “Thank you,” he says, sinking back down as Nazuna sits next to him.

He still hasn’t quite relaxed, not drinking even though his hands clench around the teacup. Nazuna lifts his own cup to his lips in lieu of saying anything, sip it without quite tasting anything and in the silence he takes Shuu in, in front of him. He looks a little thinner, his eyes a little more sunken, but all the same there’s dirt still under his nails and so Nazuna can swallow his tea easily.

“How have you been,” he asks, pulling his legs up as he turns to Shuu. He rests an arm on the back of the couch and then reaches up to tuck his hair behind his ear, and when he rests it back down it’s drawn more into his side than it was, further from Shuu.

“I -- alright,” Shuu says, and somehow he lifts the teacup to his mouth, not looking at Nazuna. “I’ve been -- been learning a lot.”

“Yeah?” He tilts his head, leans in a little, and when Shuu puts the teacup down he’s not looking at Nazuna still, but his eyes don’t dart around as much. “Like what?”

“All kinds of things,” Shuu says. “Botany, mostly, but a classmate has a flower shop, and on the weekends I help him. American flower language is different, of course, but --” And finally he smiles. It’s small, just the barest tug at the corners of his mouth, but Nazuna can see it. “It’s fascinating.”

“I’m glad,” Nazuna says, and for the first time Shuu looks at him. His shoulders have finally relaxed, and it’s so easy to sit here that Nazuna can’t help but smile. Just like that conversation spools out between them, a thread unwinding like the tension in Shuu’s body, and slowly Nazuna finds himself relaxing as well.

He’d almost forgotten what it was like, just being with Shuu. Talking, and smiling, and if occasionally their knees brush on the couch, well -- Nazuna can’t help it. It’s nice, to reach, and feel a living being under his touch.

And then, without meaning to, Nazuna says, “And did you meet anyone nice?” It’s a line he would have used on any of his other friends, but the teasing lilt he usually gives it doesn’t quite make it in. He knows it’s a mistake from the moment it leaves his mouth but there it hangs between them. His hand clenches in his teacup and Shuu just --

Shuu just looks at him. “I never --” He stops, licks his lips. His hands tighten on the teacup, and when he leans forward it tilts and a little spills out. He doesn’t even seem to notice the trickle of liquid over his knuckles. “There was never anyone else. There was nobody,” Shuu says, leaning in, “but you.”

Nazuna breathes in, breathes out. He unfolds his legs just enough, reaching out to put his teacup down on table. Shuu’s he takes too, rests it right next to his own, and it’s only then that he can bring himself to look back up. Shuu is staring at him, knuckles white where they’re fisted on the couch, and his mouth is drawn in a terrible straight line.

“You know,” Nazuna says. He licks his lips, and without realizing it he leans forward, just the slightest. “I -- I tried. Once or twice. But,” and here he exhales, shakily. “It never -- It never worked out. We’d be talking about something, and the whole time I’d just be thinking about -- about what you would say, if you were there.” His eyes had slid, at some point, down away from Shuu, but here he manages to glance up, just for a moment, take in Shuu’s parted lips, Shuu’s slightly widened eyes. “I always missed you.”

And with that stretching between them it’s easy, almost, to stretch out and take Shuu’s hands in his own. He can’t look at Shuu’s face so he stares down, looks at the paleness of Shuu’s skin against his own, compares the size of their palms and the lengths of their fingers. All the differences are the same as they’d been, and something about that makes Nazuna’s chest ache.

“Nazuna,” Shuu says, and his voice is tight. “I’m -- I’m going to have to go back overseas. But all the same.” And finally Nazuna looks up, eyes meeting Shuu’s, and even with the little ways Shuu’s changed his eyes are still the same, still looking at Nazuna like they could swallow him whole, and Shuu says, “I’d like to try again.”

“Yeah,” Nazuna says, and smiles a little, helpless. “I -- You know, I never really wanted to break up at all. I just thought, with the distance, it’d be better for us in the long run. But….” His voice is wobbling. “I’d rather wait and know you’d come back in the end.”

And just like that Shuu’s moved forward, his lips on Nazuna’s, and kissing him is so familiar and so easy that Nazuna melts into it, arms reaching up as Shuu presses down against him. Nazuna sighs into the kiss, lets Shuu push him down against the couch even as he pulls Shuu tighter against himself. Being here in Shuu’s arms, Nazuna thinks, feels like coming home.

“I missed you,” Shuu murmurs between kisses, and “I love you,” and “Nazuna, Nazuna, Nazuna.” Nazuna’s whispering the same, little declarations of adoration and devotion breathed into the space between them, as Shuu’s fingers thread through his hair, as Shuu’s thumb traces so gently over Nazuna’s cheek.

“Shuu,” he manages, finally pulling back enough to see Shuu’s blown out pupils, Shuu’s kiss-bitten lips. His hand reaches up, traces a line down Shuu’s face, and Shuu sighs shudderingly, pressing his face into Nazuna’s palm. “Welcome back.”

Shuu kisses Nazuna’s palm, doesn’t look away from Nazuna’s face. “I’m home,” he whispers, lips dragging on Nazuna’s skin, and Nazuna smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> any kudos/comments are highly appreciated! catch me on twit @hirokiyuus if you're interested in commissioning me, or if you just wanna chat!


End file.
